Scotland by Artists - Beth Garner, painter
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In what has certainly been a exceptional year in many more aspects than we’d like to remember, E-City is launching its new project “Scotland by Artists”.
Over the course of the next few months, we’ll be meeting with artists based in Scotland, working in many different fields such as painting, illustration, photography and writing, and will explore and document how they find their influence in their daily life in Scotland.
For many, Scotland is more than just the sum of its usual stories. If the national dress (kilts and tartans) and Scotland’s celebrated heroes (William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Robert Burns…) are undeniably putting Scottish culture on the map, there is a whole world of artistic influences and stories to be discovered, and that are barely brushed by the usual promotional narratives.
In the first episode of “Scotland by Artists”, we meet with Beth Garner, an Edinburgh-based painter. Originally from the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, located right on the border between England and Scotland, Beth has been finding inspiration for her paintings in her daily walks around the Scottish capital.
For Beth, one does not become an artist, we’re all artists in our own way: from the way you make your morning coffee to how you style your home, or tend to your garden and how you live your life, it’s all art and it’s all beautiful. Edinburgh has been an artist’s dream, she loves that you can walk down almost any street here and catch a glimpse of either the Castle, Arthur’s seat, Calton Hill or even the bridges over the Firth of Forth.
The magical views the city provides, as well as the many stories it tells us through its different seasons, weather and moods are a constant source of inspiration for Beth. The way they influence our own lives is particularly of interest to her.
Beth likes to quote Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith :"This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.”
Beth Garner’s art is on display on her website - www.bethgarnerart.com, as well as on her Instagram page @bethgarnerart.